Both decisions sparked controversy in Toronto, as the CRTC's reasons for passing over an urban-format station (which Toronto did not have) in favour of existing radio services were believed to be racist in nature. The lack of an urban station also created immense difficulties for Canadian hip hop, reggae and R&B musicians, who had no radio outlets in Canada to play and promote their music.

The original logo of Flow 93.5 (2001–2007)

As well, the 99.1 signal which was awarded to the CBC was believed to be the last available FM frequency in the city. However, in 1998, the CBC found that it was able to surrender two repeater transmitters outside of Toronto due to CBLA's superior coverage of the region. In 2000, the CRTC opened applications for new services on these two frequencies, and on Milestone's third application, the CRTC awarded the 93.5 frequency to the company.[3]

CFXJ officially debuted on March 1, 2001, after airing as a testing signal for several days in February of that year, using the name FLOW 93.5. Before the station became prominent in the Greater Toronto Area, many listeners would tune into Buffalo, New York's 93.7 WBLK, which has aired an urban contemporary format since the 1960s. Since CFXJ's debut, many Canadian hip hop and R&B musicians – including Jully Black, k-os, Kardinal Offishall and Jarvis Church, among others – have made the types of significant career breakthroughs that often eluded Canadian urban musicians in the 1990s.

By 2009, with the arrival of top 40 station CKIS-FM, FLOW 93.5 continued as a rhythmic top 40 station, but leaned back towards its urban roots, with some of the rhythmic pop songs phased out. CFXJ-FM continues to be reported on Mediabase and Nielsen BDS on the Canadian top 40 panel, since there are no rhythmic top 40 stations in Canada. However, this move back towards an Urban-lean was unsuccessful, and many of the adult urban tracks were dropped by March 2010. (CKFG-FM launched as an Urban AC in October 2011).

Third logo (2011-2015)

In February 2011, CFXJ re-tweaked its format back to a conventional rhythmic Top 40 direction that once again includes dance product and began billing its slogan as "Hip-Hop, Dance, and R&B." It also saw a mass exodus of air staffers (including the program director and sales staff, as well as all specialty programs and mix shows being cancelled) as CTVglobemedia (now Bell Media Radio) took over the ownership of the station from Milestone.[4]

By August of that year, its slogan once again became simply "Toronto's Hip-Hop and R&B". In November, the station once again returned to urban with the launch of competitor CKFG-FM. However, by December 2012, the station had moved back to a Rhythmic Top 40 format, with a heavy emphasis on currents and re-currents and a new slogan, "The Beat of Toronto".

Two years later, in late 2014, influenced by the popularity of The Back in the Day Buffet noon-hour mix-show, as well as the growing popularity of the classic hip-hop format in the United States, the station revamped its playlist to include classic hip-hop, R&B and reggae tracks from the late 1980s to the early 2000s, while still playing some currents. In addition, CFXJ added a secondary slogan: "The Best Throwbacks and Hottest Hits." By March 2015, the station's primary slogan was altered to "All The Best Throwbacks".[6][7]

On June 23, 2010, it was announced that CHUM Radio, would acquire full control the station, subject to CRTC approval.[8][9][10] On December 23, 2010, the CRTC approved the sale of CFXJ to CHUM. CHUM previously joint ventured with Milestone with CHBN in Edmonton, which was sold to Rogers Radio along with CHST in London. The station's headquarters were relocated from their longtime home at 211 Yonge Street to CTV's 250 Richmond Street West (near 299 Queen Street West, where MuchMusic and other Bell Media specialty television stations are based) in February 2011 after CTVgm took control of the station. On April 1, 2011, Bell Canada completed its acquisition of 100% of the shares in CTVglobemedia it didn't already own. It renamed the company Bell Media and likewise renamed the radio division Bell Media Radio.

In March 2013, the Competition Bureau approved a proposal by Bell Media to acquire Astral Media, under the condition that it divest itself of several television services and radio stations. Following the closure of the merger in July 2013, CFXJ was placed in a blind trust pending its eventual sale.[11][12][13]

On August 26, 2013, Newcap Radio announced it would acquire CFXJ along with four other former Astral Media radio stations from Bell Media for $112 million.[14] The deal was approved by the CRTC on March 19, 2014 and the sale closed on March 31, 2014.[15][16] With the sale, CFXJ moved their studios to the former CFRB and CKFM studios at 2 St. Clair West (at Yonge and St. Clair).